You know what would really be shocking? If instead of this crap, someone made a movie that portrayed American soldiers in a positive light.
In the last six years, the American people have undertaken one of the most idealistic missions in the history of the world. We have decided that our security rests not in bombing others into fear, not in threating to unleash our incomprehensible nuclear arsenal, but in the liberty of others. Our response to 9/11 was to bring freely-elected representative government to two of the most oppressed nations on earth. We have spent so much money on this that if our war effort were a country, it would displace New Zealand as the 60th largest economy in the world.
Our brave soldiers volunteer to leave the extreme poshness of the American civilian world to risk their lives performing this mission. They spend months and years deployed in places American civilians would consider hellholes, whether it’s the mountains of Afghanistan, the 120 degree heat of Iraq, or the simple omnipresent poverty of villages in either country. They build schools, stop the oppression of locals (whether by their government or terrorists), and organize governments, all while trying not to harm civilians who often allow terrorists to hide among them.
And yet there has not been one studio movie during this time period that portrays this effort in a positive light. Dissent is now the highest form of hackney.
Apollo posted this at 7:02 PM EDT on Friday, August 31st, 2007 as Amer-I-Can!, Global War on Terror
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Counting down to the future, we now have Tricorders:
Submitted by Layer 8 on Fri, 08/31/2007 – 10:12am.
Researchers are experimenting with a device right out of
Star Trek: a Tricorder-like tool that uses high-intensity focused ultrasound rays. On Star Trek Tricorders had multiple functions but the medical version used by
Bones McCoy could scan a body and help diagnose and heal injured or sick patients.
In this case, Engineers at the University of Washington are testing a device that uses multiple lenses to focus high-intensity ultrasound beams at a particular spot inside the body on the patient’s lungs. Focusing the ultrasound beams, in a process similar to focusing sunlight with a magnifying glass, creates a tiny but extremely hot spot about the size and shape of a grain of rice. The rays heat the blood cells until they form a seal. Meanwhile the tissue between the device and the spot being treated does not get hot, as it would with a laser beam, researchers said in a statement.
High-intensity focused ultrasound promises “bloodless surgery” with no scalpels or sutures. Doctors would pass a sensor over the patient and use invisible rays to heal the wound. The findings from tests with the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle suggest that ultrasound might replace what is now a painful, invasive procedure. Lung injuries are relatively common because the chest is a big surface that’s often exposed to crushing or puncture wounds.Recent tests on pigs’ lungs showed that high-intensity ultrasound sealed the leaks in one or two minutes. More than 95% of the 70 incisions were stable after two minutes of treatment, according to results published this summer in the Journal of Trauma.
This is all well and good – but where’s my holodeck?!
Jamie posted this at 4:36 PM EDT on Friday, August 31st, 2007 as Science & Evolution, Uncategorized
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(H/T)
Hubbard posted this at 1:07 PM EDT on Friday, August 31st, 2007 as Humor
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It appears that now religions can have charter schools:
When the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy opened four years ago in suburban Minneapolis, the school was a bold experiment and its survival was in question. There was the scramble to attract students that any charter school faces, but Tarek ibn Ziyad had the additional worry of a constitutional challenge, given the school’s sponsorship by a nonprofit called Islamic Relief and the curriculum’s emphasis on Muslim culture and the Arabic language.
The school has not only survived but thrived, and there are plans for local expansion. Perhaps the surest sign that the experiment worked came last week, when a new charter school opened up thousands of miles away in Hollywood, Fla.—founded by Jewish parents, Ben Gamla Charter School has kosher food in the cafeteria and Hebrew posters in the classrooms. In the planning of the Florida school, Tarek ibn Ziyad’s experience was taken into account.
I’m not quite sure what to think about this. People should have the right to send children to religious schools, but should the state be running those schools? It seems like it’s state sponsorship of religion. School vouchers, which I favor, at least don’t involve government messing with school curricula. This seems a bit fuzzier.
Hubbard posted this at 1:01 PM EDT on Friday, August 31st, 2007 as Edjamacation, Kulturkampf
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Jamie posted this at 11:18 AM EDT on Friday, August 31st, 2007 as Dirty Hippies, Humor
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I really hate this sort of crap:
New customers are charged a $15 fee to cover the costs of setting up their accounts. This fee is assessed upon connection of utilities.
Why bother calling me a customer if you’re going to treat me like garbage? I’m sorry your bureaucracy is so exceptionally inefficient that it takes $15 worth of work for you to pass the word down to the garbage man to pick up my frickin garbage, but why must I pay for your stupidity? Oh yeah, because you’re the government!
Apollo posted this at 11:00 PM EDT on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 as Grumblin Mumblins
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Hmm. According to TJIC’s list, in some things the poor are better off than I am (home ownership, car, TV, VCR).
Hubbard posted this at 12:10 PM EDT on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 as Kulturkampf
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Lee — as only Lee can — makes a great point on Right Thinking about the Sen. Craig Kerfluffle and what it says about conservatism and the Republican party:
Today’s Republican Party.
Torture? No problem!
Massive social spending? Love it!
Unwavering support for an incompetent president? Absolutely!
Ruining America’s reputation? We can’t get enough!
Sexual attraction to men? WHAT THE F***? WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA? I BET YOU WANT TO RAPE MY BABY, YOU DISGUSTING PIECE OF S***!
Yeah, pretty much.
Tom posted this at 10:23 AM EDT on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 as Conservatism, Grumblin Mumblins
8 Comments »
The big gun that Gore, et al, always trots out (as if it actually means anything anyway) to support Anthropogenic Global Warming is the “near consensus” in the scientific community.
Well when you look at the actual facts, something the environmentalists are obviously terrible at, it turns out that less than half actually support current global warming theories.
Wait, you’re telling me that Al Gore lied to us? I’m shocked, SHOCKED I tell you.
Jamie posted this at 8:51 PM EDT on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 as Convenient Truth
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The New Hampshire Union Leader was once known for running editorials on its front page when a politician displeased them. Today they fired a warning shot at Fred Thompson:
If Thompson announces before the debate, New Hampshire voters will expect him to be at the University of New Hampshire with the other announced candidates. A no-show will be counted here as a snub.
If Thompson waits until after the debate to make his announcement, it will appear to some as if he timed the announcement just to avoid the New Hampshire debate. That would give his foes the chance to say he is either not serious about running for the nomination or is too unprepared to be considered a credible candidate.
Politically, Thompson ought to come to the debate. Avoiding it costs him stature, which is his chief political commodity right now.
We know that state GOP chairman Fergus Cullen and the co-sponsoring FOX News team would be happy to find a spot on stage for Fred Thompson even if he announces his candidacy the day of the debate. Timing is no excuse for missing this event.
If Fred! skips this debate, Thompson skeptics will probably enjoy the coverage he’ll get from the Union Leader through the New Hampshire primaries.
Hubbard posted this at 3:04 PM EDT on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 as Audacity of Hype
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Germaine Greer (H/T) digs up Princess Diana and takes a few whacks:
The same foolhardiness was at work not only in Diana’s ill-starred sexual adventures but also in her orchestration of her public persona. After her separation, when she was making her bid to be queen of people’s hearts, she rushed into too many situations in which genuine angels would have feared to tread. Her habit of popping up in the midst of other people’s life crises must have startled some of her victims. It’s tough enough watching a relative die without having an immaculately groomed princess batting her mascaraed lashes at you, clutching your hand and fetching you cups of coffee. The media fell for it, even as they realised that this was a desperate woman seeking applause.
In death she has it, doled out in huge amounts. Her beauty has become legendary, mesmeric, dazzling, irresistible; at her funeral her brother made one of the 100 best speeches of the 20th century. He didn’t carry out his threat to remove his nephews from the royal madhouse. Instead he buried his unhappy sister on the family estate and charges her adorers £12.50 a visit.
Diana’s legacy is no more than endless column inches of adulation and speculation. The Firm is still in business. In the endless royal soap opera the Queen has taken to impersonating a sweet old granny — except when the showbusiness photographer Annie Leibovitz gets her goat. Meanwhile Camilla has been careful not to step into Diana’s shoes. She keeps a refuge in her own house in Wiltshire, doesn’t always take her place at her husband’s side, and hasn’t assumed the doomed title of Princess of Wales.
Dianaphobes will love all of Greer’s article. The Dianaphiles won’t get it because there’s no pictures.
Hubbard posted this at 9:54 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 as Europa Universalis, Excruciatingly Correct Behavior
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Not content to subvert an entire state of matter, those fiends, the international terrorists, have put their mark on flour as well. Fortunately, we here in New England can know that we are as well protected from this threat as we are from the Mooninites.
But are we protecting our nation’s capital? A simple Google search shows that the leaders of the free world are surrounded by potential terrorist weapons caches.
How can Chertoff allow a situation like this to continue right under his nose? Is he really AG material?
Geoff posted this at 9:42 PM EDT on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 as Amer-I-Can!, Global War on Terror, Humor, Liberty and/or Security, Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be!
4 Comments »
In the realm of all things awesome, Comedy Central has renewed South Park for 3 more seasons.
$75 Million! Man I gotta get a show on the air.
Jamie posted this at 5:18 PM EDT on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 as Humor
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- Tired of stale peanuts and boring ol’ ginger ale? Do your cross-continental flights fail to uplift? Then come fly the Catholic skies, where every ticket comes with complimentary bread and wine!
Tom posted this at 12:06 PM EDT on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 as Random Bloggish Things
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Larry Craig has had rumors swirling around him for years, and it looks like he’s gotten himself in trouble again. Mark Steyn noted this absurdity from the spin room:
I’ve a high degree of tolerance even for laughingstocks, but honestly:
Craig stated “that he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine,” the report states.
If only his stance on immigration was so firm. The point is, by the time you’re issuing statements on your position in the men’s room of Minneapolis International Airport, your position on Iraq is pretty much on an express chute to George Michael territory.
Jonah Goldberg chimes in:
I just love his office’s initial statement (later updated):
A spokesman for Craig described the June 11 incident as a “he said/he said misunderstanding,” and said the senator’s office would release a fuller statement later today.
Call me crazy, but I would have thought that it’s press flacking 101 not to further sexualize a controversy in which you are denying that sex had anything to do with it. Other great denials might be:
“The alleged ‘victim’ wasn’t his type.”
“This is all a terrible misunderstanding. The Senator is a bus station man.”
“He was with me in Provincetown at the time.”
“He doesn’t need to cruise bathrooms to find guys.”
“Oh, no she didn’t!”
It’s resignation time for Sen. Craig.
A tangential thought. The political left and right in America are both rambunctious, but they’re not mirror images of each other. For the past half century, National Review has acted for conservatism in the same way that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has for Catholicism. Quality control. The CDF and NR have banished various heretics: the Integrists, the Objectivists, Liberation theologians, the John Birch Society.
Congress has no heretics, but it does have more than its share of jokers. Now that the right is out of power in Congress, it’s time to clear out the clowns. Larry Craig and others who are embarassments—Jerry Lewis, John Doolittle, Ted Stevens, Don Young—need to get the vaudeville hook.
Hubbard posted this at 10:43 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 as Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, Uncategorized
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